Venice: Angry Filmmakers, Smoking Lights, Disappointing Films

[Editor's Note: Manolis, our correspondent from Greece, is wrapping up his time in Venice. But hopefully he'll go out on a higher note that this day, which disappointed him.  -Nathaniel R]

The last two days were bad days for me at the festival. Films I had high hopes for proved to be less that satisfying and smaller films that I hoped would surprise me didn't.

People Mountain, People Sea
This was the ‘surprise film’ of the Competition section of the festival announced just a few minutes before its first press screening. But this was not the only surprise for the press attending. Halfway through the film smoke started coming out of a headlight in the screening room and many journalists started running towards the exits panicked. The screening was interrupted, the firemen came and fixed the problem that could have resulted in a fire. After 25 minutes the screening resumed and the remaining critics watched the rest of the story. The movie is about a man Lao Tie in a small province of China who realizes that the local police force are unable to catch his younger brother’s killer, so he decides to do it himself. He embarks a journey that not only brings him face to face with the killer but also brings out all the fears and anger hiding inside him for many years. Unfortunately the fire incident was far more interesting than the film. I would say that this was the worst film I saw in the festival thus far, if it wasn’t for...

4:44 Last Day on Earth
In a large New York penthouse a couple of lovers (William Dafoe & Shanyn Leigh) are spending their last night talking and making love. Tomorrow at 4:44 pm the world will come to an end. Director Abel Ferarra's (Bad Lieutenant, Dangerous Game, Mary) new film, which describes the way this couple faces the impending collapse of the world it thematically interesting (Don McKellar made a fine film on the topic with “Last Night” in 1998) but the potential is never fulfilled. What Ferrara has to offer is ideological deliriums and a cheap morality lessons. 

[SPOILERS] The movie goes like this: the couple make love, they watch an Al Gore interview about global warming, they make love, they meditate, they make love, they watch a Dalai Lama speech about human nature, they quarrel, the clock shows 4:44 and they die. The audience should only hope that the world ends at 3:20 so that they won't have to endure the 84 minutes of this movie. A few of the reporters left during the screening and some of those who chose to remain till the end, did not hesitate to boo.

And More...
Both Dark Horse by Todd Solondz and Himizu from Sono Sion were also nothing to write home about.  The former started off promising but soon fell into the same category as nearly all of Todd Solondz's films: not exactly a failure but nowhere near the quality of his masterful Happiness (1998). The latter film, from Japan, was advertised here in Venice as one of the first films to deal with the Fukushima catastrophy but its use of the shots of the tsunami's aftermath played more like a marketing device than an essential or important part of the story. The average acting didn’t help either. 

Wuthering Heights
The biggest disappointment for me was Andrea Arnold's newest film. I've been a fan since Red Road and especially loved Fish Tank so I expected that her new film would be absolute festival highlight, rather than just a good film with intriguing elements. She gambled on unknown and teenage actors in the leading roles which was gutsy but doesn't always pay off. The story is told from Heathcliff’s point of view, but unfortunately we never understand his very complicated relationship with Catherine. Worse Catherine comes off as a very unlikable and it's hard to understand how two men both become so obsessed with her. The cinematography is the standout element in the film, with Robbie Ryan (who lensed both Red Road and Fish Tank) delivering truly exceptional work. Arnold reveals a strange obsession with mud and with hanged puppies and though her angry filmmaking is fascinating it doesn’t suit this kind of film. It’s not that her black teenage ex-slave Heathcliff is the problem but it feels rather strange when he says, in the true Bronte fashion, “F*ck you, you c*nt”. It’s an original approach for sure but, for me, an experiment that could lead to future greatness but doesn't do so here.

Oscar Submissions: Serbia, The Netherlands, Angelina Jolie & the Austrians

The Oscar Submissions continue to trickle in.

THE NETHERLANDS (7 nominations, 3 wins)
For about a decade from the mid 80s to the mid 90s Dutch-language films were the rage with Oscar voters with 3 nominations which all went on to win the big prize. The country last nomination was for 2003's Twin Sisters but given their track record (at least one nominee a decade since their first) they'll be golden again soon. This year they've selected Maria Peter's Sonny Boy which is a true scandalous story based on a best selling book about a 40 something married woman and her affair with a 19 year old black student. The couple get pregnant. Trivia note: Their child --  "Sonny Boy" being the Al Jolson inspired nickname they gave him -- is supposedly still alive and an octogenarian now!

Oscar does like a true story. And they like epics involving World Wars. Here's the dialogue free teaser and you can decide for yourself how Oscar might respond.

SERBIA
They've never been nominated but there's got to be a first time. Dragan Bjelogrlic's Montevideo God Bless You which seems, from descriptions, to be a nostalgia soaked period piece about 1930s Belgrade just as much as it's a sweeping inspirational story of young men with big (sports) dreams, in this case football (soccer). To be specific their dreams take them to the  First World Football Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay.

If IMDb can be trusted on Serbian film industry goings on (they sometimes get foreign film info wrong) they're already filming a sequel  which is this movie. Can anyone translate that title for us?

This is quite a bit different than the type of film Serbia usually submits. They've never submitted a film by this director before and the films don't usually skew this young either. The film stars two relative newbies Milos Bikovic (previously on Serbian TV series) and Peter Stager (film debut).

Milos Bikovic and Peter Stager

Will Oscar take a longer look this time?

The closest Serbia has come to a nomination was The Trap in 2007 which made the finals but not the shortlist.

AUSTRIA (3 noms, 1 win)
Austria's entry this year also trains its lens on a young man, the 19 year old Roman (Thomas Schubert). Roman, though, doesn't have big dreams but is just trying to build a new life after prison.  Guilt haunts him for his teenage crimes. The film is directed by the actor Karl Markovics (most recently seen in the international hit Unknown).

It's worth noting that the movie is already an award winner. Schubert won Best Actor at the Sarajevo Film Festival and who handed him the prize but global icon Angelina Jolie, who was honored herself (and accepted tearfully) at the very same event. So should Breathing (Atmen) be Oscar nominated, Schubert might have another chance to share oxgyen with her. He's already experienced one embodiment of Hollywood glamour, just not the gold plated kind. 

Angelina Jolie at the Sarajevo Film FestivalPREVIOUS SUBMISSIONS AND SPECULATIONS

Venice: "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "A Simple Life"

[Editor's Note: Here's Manolis, a Greek reader who is covering Venice for The Film Experience. If you can read Greek, visit Cinema News for more of his festival coverage.]

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
The spy thriller was eagerly anticipated here in Venice and reaction was generally positive though some critics felt that something was missing. English is not my first language and with the heavy accents I did have a hard time following all of the twists of the intricate plot. But despite my difficult I was delighted that the film doesn’t underestimate your intelligence and demands your full attention throughout. The film's technical aspest are very impressive from sets to costumes to cinematography and Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) directs with stylish gusto, creating magnificent shots and frames. Though the spy movie genre doesn't generally promise the slow pacing that Alfredson chooses, it's an interesting approach. The performances follow this same tone, all of them toned down. The triumph of the ensemble cast is that you can feel that underneath the icy surface of the British mentality of the period, there is an array of emotions ready to explode. A simple gesture is, for these characters, far more important than a whole sentence. In fact, Gary Oldman only raises his voice once in the lead role of George Smiley in a wonderful monologue towards the end. Colin Firth and John Hurt are also very good as is Tom Hardy in a small but memorable role.  

The one thing I felt Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy lacked is a heart as it is a particularly cold experience. This not automatically a flaw for an intelligent espionage thriller but a small dose of warmth would have added to the whole a great deal considering that the film turns on loyalty, values and ideals. 

Andy Lau at the Venice premiere of A Simple LifeTAO JIE (A SIMPLE LIFE)
The second movie today was Tao Jie by Chinese filmmaker Ann Hui. The film takes place in Hong Kong and deals with the relationship between the thirtysomething Roger Lee (Andy Lau) and his elderly nanny Tao (Deannie Yip). The roles in this relationship are reversed when Tao gets seriously ill and can’t serve him anymore. It’s time for Roger Lee to rise to the occasion, learn to appreciate the things that he has taken granted and take care of this woman who was more than a mother to him all his life; she needs to know that someone will be there by her side in the last days.

A Simple Life has humor, pathos and sensitive performances and provides an interesting window for Westerners of the way the Chinese view their elders. The tender story has broad appeal but breaks no new ground and begins to drag towards the end.  Although comparisons to Yasujiro Ozu’s films would be unfair, they are inevitable and naturally not favorable for Hui’s film. 

Vote on the Euro Film Awards (Plus: Oscar Submits)

While I normally approve not of "people's choice" awards -- that's what box office is for -- I do find the European Film Awards a curious beast worth noting each year. They have variety by way of scattershot film culture, there being no unifying "Hollywood" to control them. This year their People's Choice Awards -- which you can vote on and enter for a chance to win a trip to the awards in Berlin -- offers up an odd collection of Camp Comedy (France's star-laden Potiche), Royalty Porn (The UK's Oscar winner The King's Speech), Meta History (Spain's Even The Rain), Message Movie (Denmark's Oscar Winner In a Better World), Neeson-y Thriller (the international Unknown), Fish Out of Water Comedy (Italy's Welcome to the South), Ensemble Drama (France's star-laden Little White Lies), and even Animated Family Film (Germany's Animals United).

And the Nominees Are...

Go and vote...
...as long as you're not planning to help The King's Speech win yet more statues. Cinema-Gods help us all.

Meanwhile the Oscar Foreign Film submissions continue...

NORWAY
Anne Sewitsky’s debut Happy, Happy (Sykt lykkelig) which we've previously discussed (I heart the trailer) will represent the land of the midnight sun in this year's Oscar race. Previous awards under its belt include the Sundance Festival's World Cinema Jury Prize Dramatic which, if you'll recall, is the same prize that the great Australian feature Animal Kingdom got its first big boost from in 2010. Joachim Trier's Oslo August 31st is the loser in this Oscar scenario but here's hoping that both films get stateside distribution. 

HUNGARY
Bela Tarr's The Turin Horse will represent daring Hungary in this year's Oscar race. Hungary nearly always competes for Most Atypical Submitted Film which is bad for their nominatability but great for proof of variety in that odd annual Oscar survey of what's happening in international cinema. This one will need a helping hand from that special committee that Oscar dreamt up to basically force critical darlings on to the nominated shortlist. The new system obviously paid off last year for Greece's Dogtooth. Cinema Underground tells it like so...

Not since Alexander Sokurov’s The Second Circle have I watched a movie that felt so much more like physical endurance than an active intellectual and emotional experience... The Turin Horse is a punishing film.  The people in it are ugly and often cruel.  Their lives are repetitive and arduous.  There is little plot, little action, little change of scenery, but there are plenty of long, long takes in which no words are spoken.   

And that's from a somewhat positive review.

Oscar Foreign Film Pages

Foreign Film Oscar: South Korea's "Front Line"

Oscar's foreign film submission announcements will be flying at us for the next month and you can keep track of the whole list at my foreign oscar predictions pages. A short time ago I told you that South Korea had narrowed down their Oscar submissions. That news was shortlived as the competition is over and they've gone with the battlefield drama The Front Line. [Thanks to faithful TFE reader Jin for the info.]

Here's the warry trailer.

Excuse me but I barely see any actressing! I mean other than Kim Ok-bin. Shouldn't there be a rule against films light on actressing in South Korean cinema? They have so many good ones and their one representative film for AMPAS is practically bereft of them? sigh.

To make up for their sudden xy departure, here's a recent photoshoot starring Kim Ok-bin, who you'll recall was a Film Bitch nominee right here in 2009 for Thirst.

I feel much better already...

Three other selections were announced last week...

ROMANIA
Romania, like South Korea, doesn't have any Oscar nominations to show for years of cinephile enthusiasm. The Academy generally can take some time to catch up so if a country wants to get Oscar play their international cinema heat can't be shortlived. Their entry this year is Marian Crisan debut feature Morgen, a hit at the Locarno festival, which is about an unlikely friendship between a security guard and an illegal Kurdish immigrant.

MOROCCO 
Actor Roschdy Zem's second feature as a director Omar Killed Me stars Sami Bouajila, who international arthouse audiences might remember best from the gay comedy The Adventures of Félix or from major roles in two different Algerian Oscar nominees Days of Glory and Outside the Law (both of which happened to co-star Zem). Bouajila pops up in English language films once in awhile too (The Siege, London River). The previous Oscar heat doesn't stop there: Director Rachid Bouchareb, who directed both of the recent Algerian nominees starring these two, helped with the screenplay adaptation of this biopic about an innocent prisoner. The Hollywood Reporter calls it "intense and superbly acted."

VENEZUELA
Alejandro Bellame Palacios’s The Rumble of the Stones is about a mother attempting to rebuild her family's lives after a natural disaster. There are many hardships along the way but apparently it's an optimistic picture; one fan on Facebook called it a "true tribute to the nobility of Venezuelan women."

Not yet announced but getting there...

MEXICO
It's not official yet but you shouldn't be surprised if Mexico goes with festival sensation Miss Bala for their Oscar film which we've mentioned a few times. Awards Daily likes the trailer but I'm not watching it since I'm seeing the film in a couple of weeks and want to be surprised. I'm pretty wild for the poster. It's provocative ... and I mean story-wise though I'm sure breasts never hurt in selling a movie. The movie is getting a U.S. release in the fall courtesy of Fox International.

Mexico currently has these 11 features under consideration. Thanks to Armando for sending in the list. The films are

• Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo)
• 180˚(Fernando Kalife)
• Dias de Gracia (Everardo Valerio Gout Grautoff)
• El Baile de San Juan (Francisco Athie) 
• Flores en el desierto (José Alvarez)
• La Mitad del Mundo (Jaime Ruiz Ibáñez)
• Bala Mordida (Diego Muñoz Vega)
• Siete Instantes (Diana Cardoso)
• Somos lo que Hay (Jorge Michael Grau)
• Una Pared Para Cecilia (Hugo Rodríguez)
• Viaje Redondo (Gerardo Tort)

If I'm not mistaken, none of these filmmakers have ever been put forward by Mexico before so with no "favorite son" precedent it could be anyone's ball game ...were it not for the obvious critical enthusiasm for Miss Bala that is. The other film that has something of an international profile is the disturbingly grotesque Somos lo Que Hay which opened in the US as We Are What We Are. For all its horror dread potency, I can't see Oscar touching that one.